Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio, we’ve been taking a listen to Bri Schillings latest single, Be Brave. This is a collaboration with a brand new band, Sweet Imperfections, and was released on November 25th, 2022.
Be Brave begins with some vinyl static noise and a telephone filter on the track which makes the song feel distant and old-timey. This makes for a big impact when the full band sound comes in at around 50 seconds in.
We loved the panned mandolin and acoustic guitars. These worked extremely well together and made for an interesting sonic experience for both ears.
There are some gorgeous harmonies in Be Brave and the song is a real call-to-action to the listener – a subject matter we here at Send Me Your Ears always love.
The contrasting rhythms in the verses and choruses are a nice touch, and keep the listener excited and on their toes, and we loved the breakdown section with just vocal and bass which gives Bri’s vocals a real opportunity to shine. Her voice reminded us of Stevie Nicks in several places.
A second filtered section builds back into the last component of the track, with a great build on the drums. There is some great use of tambourine and organ in this track which blend in the choruses to make the rise and fall more impactful.
Ideas from our ears
A hi-pass filter at around 40Hz would remove all the unnecessary rumble in the bottom octave giving the low end a bit more clarity. A fairly large boost (5dB?) in the high mids and highs centred around 8kHz would increase the presence and brightness in the track too. Finally, a light compressor/limiter and maybe 4-5dB of make-up gain would increase the warmth in the track as well as raising the volume to match similar releases.
We loved the filtered section at the start, which gave the unfiltered section even more impact. Some super-busy music supervisors and directors may not be so patient for the payoff and we might suggest keeping filtered starts a little shorter for future tracks.
Final thoughts
Be Brave is a warm, full band, singer-songwriter track that combines characterful vocals with modern pop-style production.